Red, Black & Blue

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC - JANUARY 19: Texas Governor Rick Perry announces he is dropping his run for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination during a news conference in Charleston, South Carolina January 19, 2012. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Eric Holder’s remarks last week that voter ID laws are a modern-day version of a poll tax are receiving criticism from Texas governor Rick Perry. The Huffington Post reports that Perry has asked President Barack Obama to repudiate the Attorney General for what he considers to be an attempt by to inflame racial tensions.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that Attorney General Eric Holder’s remarks last week calling his state’s voter ID laws “poll taxes” were an attempt to incite racial tension and called on President Barack Obama to repudiate them.

“In labeling the Texas voter ID law as a ‘poll tax,’ Eric Holder purposefully used language designed to inflame passions and incite racial tension,” Perry wrote in a statement. “It was not only inappropriate, but simply incorrect on its face.”

The Republican governor called the law “common sense” and said the president should apologize for Holder’s insulting comments.